


Merry Christmas, mon cœur

by The_Lonely_Wolf_Needs_A_Star



Category: The Old Guard (Comics), The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Booker is back, Christmas, F/M, Getting Together, Hurt/Comfort, I'm sorry I had to kill Andy, It wasn't supposed to be sad but then it got out of hand, M/M, Nicky and Joe love and support Nile and Booker's relationship very much, Nile and Booker are so soft together and i love them, Redemption, also there's a dog, and i think that Booker with a dog is just the cutest shit ever, because you said you love dogs Luce, but anyway here's my take on how Booker and Nile got together, i think they're adorable together, nicky pov, outside pov
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:47:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28265634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Lonely_Wolf_Needs_A_Star/pseuds/The_Lonely_Wolf_Needs_A_Star
Summary: The story of how Booker and Nile got together after Andy died.
Relationships: Booker | Sebastien le Livre/Nile Freeman, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 6
Kudos: 51
Collections: Secret Santa Fics





	Merry Christmas, mon cœur

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Luce](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luce/gifts).



> Secret Santa present for Luce! I hope you enjoy! (also I might end up writing you a little nsfw piece later on when i get more time because this little one inspired many nsfw thoughts xD). I went with the redemption for Booker prompt as well as Book of Nile, I hope you'll like it! Merry Christmas!!

“Merry Christmas, my heart,” Joe whispers in Nicky’s ear as he circles his arms around his waist.

Nicky puts his mug on the kitchen counter and relaxes in his embrace. He tips his head back to rest against Joe’s shoulder.

“Merry Christmas, habibi.”

Joe squeezes his middle softly and kisses his neck. They start gently swaying from side to side at the rhythm of one of Nile’s beloved Christmas songs.

“I can’t believe it’s already been a year,” Joe sighs after a while.

Nicky squeezes his eyes shut. He doesn’t answer - there isn’t really anything he could say.

“I miss her,” he says eventually.

Joe’s only answer is to squeeze his middle again. Nicky knows he misses her too. Sometimes he catches Joe, sitting on the couch, a book in his hands, a far-away look in his eyes, tears running down his face. Sometimes he dries his tears, smiles sadly at Nicky and keeps on reading. Other times the book drops out of his hands and Nicky barely has time to get to him before he collapses with the weight of his grief.

Nile and Booker’s entrance in the kitchen tears Nicky out of his thoughts. He composes his expression carefully, not letting on about the direction his thoughts had taken. They’d all taken it hard when Andy had died a couple of days before Christmas a year before but Nile had shattered. The one to bring her back together had surprisingly been Booker.

***

Booker had been in exile for over fifty years before Andy ever rose the subject of bringing him back. She made Nicky, Joe, and Nile sit down on the couch and talked about how she was getting quite old - for a mortal - and how she’d lost many people she hadn’t had a chance to say goodbye to over the years. She said that despite what he’d done to them all, she loved Booker and she’d like to spend a few more years with him before she died but she was aware this wasn’t all about her and it was also up to them. None of them hesitated long, they all accepted to bring him back and give them both a chance to get more time together.

Nile volunteered to find him. Copley had retired a while before and they hadn’t yet found anyone they trusted to take on his work. It also meant they had lost track of Booker’s movements. Nile left and came back about five months later with Booker.

He tried not to show it but he was shocked at Andy’s appearance. She did look like an old lady after all. She still spoke and behaved like she had for the two hundred years he’d known her but she looked a lot older. And napped a lot. But they went back to their easy friendship quickly. Except that instead of bonding over alcohol and misery, they actually laughed, joked around, and read books together.

Booker hadn’t come back alone. He’d come back with a dog. A chocolate lab named Chocolat. Nile had shaken her head and sighed when Booker had shared Chocolat’s name with the group. Nicky was pretty sure he heard her mutter “unoriginal French bastard” before she walked away. Andy would have never admitted it but she adored Chocolat and dotted on him like crazy.

When she died, Booker hadn’t been able to stop him from crying for weeks. The only thing that did make Chocolat stop crying had been to try and comfort Nile. Nile and him would lie in bed for days on end. Nile wouldn’t eat and barely talked. Nicky had tried to help but he had been weighted down by his own grief while trying to get Joe to keep on living too. It had been too much.

Booker surprised him though. He’d been the one to keep it together. He’d cooked and brought them all food even when they said they weren’t hungry. He couldn’t cook but still he tried. At some point though, Nicky couldn’t handle Joe eating burnt food every day anymore and got back to cooking. Part of him still wonders if Booker hadn’t done it on purpose because he knew Nicky that well.

The one he’d helped the most in the aftermath of Andy’s death though, had been Nile. He sat by her every day and talked to her. He made her eat and drink every once in a while. He also managed to talk her into moving from her bed and taking a shower every couple of days. She never agreed to any of Joe or Nicky’s suggestions to get up and shower, or come out of her room to eat with them. But if Booker got into her room, a little while later, Nicky would hear the water running in the shower. 

Slowly, Booker brought her out again. She ate with them, didn’t talk much, but she listened. After a few weeks, Booker suggested they go out for a walk and she agreed. Little by little, Booker managed to do what had first seemed impossible and Nicky felt so very grateful he was there to take care of them all - but especially for him knowing how to care for Nile when neither Joe nor Nicky knew what to do to help her.

A couple of months after Andy’s death, Booker and Nile left in a car. They were gone for a week and when they came back, Nile looked better. They never said where they went or what they did and Nicky didn’t ask. It didn’t matter, just as long as Nile was feeling better.

Nile started smiling again. Mostly at Booker, but sometimes she’d also be her old self back and tease Nicky and Joe, the corner of her mouth tipping up.

Eventually, when they all felt ready, they moved from the house. It had been Andy’s last home and it was hard but they knew it was time to move on. They found a nice little house by the beach. Nile started going out more, Booker and Chocolat in tow. Some afternoons, Nicky stood at the kitchen window and watched the three of them playing frisbee, Nile’s laughing face warming Nicky’s heart.

Booker laughed too. Much more than before his exile. More often than not, he laughed at something Nile said or Chocolat did. Each time he did, Nile’s face softened as she looked at him - just like his did when he looked at her. 

Nicky wasn’t surprised when he once came back home from grocery shopping to find them cuddling on the couch, Nile’s face buried in Booker’s chest as he held her close. They were both asleep, Chocolat lying at their feet. Nicky turned off the movie that was running unwatched on the TV and went to the kitchen to get dinner ready. A little while after, Booker and Nile started taking long walks on the beach holding hands, Chocolat running around them.

Every morning, when Nile woke up, she immediately got up and walked to the kitchen where Nicky and Booker were. Nicky could tell she’d just woken up because she came in with her eyes barely open, her hair still in a scarf, and marks from the pillow on her cheek. She always walked directly into Booker’s arms and she stayed there for as long as it took for her to wake up. Nicky got her coffee ready and handed it to her when she stepped away from Booker.

One morning, Booker didn’t join him in the kitchen as he had every morning since he’d come back to the group. Since coming back, he had made sure to take time to bond again with each of them and morning time was his and Nicky’s alone time to have breakfast, talk, share book recommendations and such. Booker hadn’t missed a single morning with him until that day. When Nicky walked down the corridor leading to the bedrooms after breakfast to go and check if Joe was still asleep, he heard the murmur of voices coming from Nile’s bedroom. He stood there with a smile on his face until he heard Booker’s deep laugh. Then, he went to his and Joe’s bedroom where he woke his husband up to tell him about this new development.

After that day, Booker never joined him again early morning in the kitchen but he joined him for every grocery shopping run instead. Nicky didn’t say a word at the change, he knew how nice it was to wake up in your beloved’s arms and couldn’t blame Booker for wanting to give that to Nile.

By that point, Nile was doing much better - all of them were. They were obviously still feeling the loss of Andy but they all knew she had had a long life and hadn’t been sad to go. Sad to leave them, but not sad to go. So on they went with their lives. Everything felt better once the four of them were able to find joy again in their lives - and Booker and Nile’s blossoming love brought a lot of joy in their little home. 

Every once in a while though, Booker would have a hard day. He had stopped drinking during his exile but some days were harder than others. On those days, the house was quiet. Booker and Nile rarely came out of their room but when they did, Booker wouldn’t let Nile get too far away from him and she didn’t try. She kept a comforting hand on his arm, his chest, or in his own hand at all times. She couldn’t make it all go away, but she could be there for him - like he had been there for her.

Slowly they all found their way back and a year after Andy’s death, they celebrated Christmas in their little house by the beach together.

***

“Can we open the presents now?” Nile asks as soon as they walk in the kitchen.

Booker shakes his head and laughs softly before bringing their linked hands up to his mouth and kissing her knuckles.

“You know how anal Nicky is when it comes to presents, Nile,” Joe tells her.

Nicky steps out of his embrace and picks up his mug.

“I’m not anal,” he says with a warning look to a chuckling Joe. “It’s not present time yet. It’s the 24th and presents are to be opened on the 25th.”

“Oh come on!” Nile says. “It’ll be the 25th in less than two hours!”

Nicky doesn’t budge even under the pressure of Nile’s fake glare. After a while, Booker laughs and kisses Nile’s cheek.

“Let it go, mon amour.”

She lets go of an exaggerated sigh and turns around to cuddle him.

Nicky hands out the mugs of hot chocolate he has prepared for them and they all quietly drink, content with each other’s company.

“Oh, I know!” Nile says after a while. “We should dance!”

She drags Booker to the living-room, Joe and Nicky taking their time finishing their hot chocolates before joining them.

By the time they get to the living-room, Nile and Booker are standing in each other’s embrace, barely moving. He leans down and rests his forehead against hers, his eyes closed.

“Merry Christmas, mon coeur,” he whispers softly.

“Merry Christmas, love” she whispers back.


End file.
